2021年经济学人 好莱坞巨变--迪士尼,华纳加入流媒体战场(1)

Business

商业版块

Cinema and streaming

大荧幕和流媒体

Big bets on the small screen

大举押注小荧幕

Hollywood is pivoting¹ to home entertainment

好莱坞正在转向家庭娱乐领域

If any industry could use help from Wonder Woman, it is cinemas. Lockdowns and a dearth² of new releases have reduced worldwide box-office takings by about 70% in 2020. Thankfully for theatre owners, the corseted crusader will charge to the rescue on Christmas Day, giving audiences a reason to go back to the movies.

如果说有哪个行业需要从《神奇女侠》中获益，那就是电影业无疑了。疫情封锁，加之无上新大片，2020年的全球票房缩水了70%左右。谢天谢地，这位身穿紧身衣的女战士将在圣诞节当天前往救援，给观众们一个重返电影院的理由。

Yet in a plot twist, AT&T, the telecoms giant that owns the film’s producer, Warner Bros, has announced that “Wonder Woman 1984” and the 17 feature films on Warner’s release slate³ for 2021 will be made available on its HBO Max streaming service on the day they are released in cinemas, which historically have had an exclusive run of a few months. Purists are aghast. “The future of cinema will be on the big screen, no matter what any Wall Street dilettante⁴ says,” declared Denis Villeneuve, whose sci-fi epic⁵, “Dune”, is among the affected⁶ films.

然而情节出现了转折，《神奇女侠》的制作公司华纳兄弟所属的电信巨头美国电话电报公司（AT&T）宣布，《神奇女侠1984》及华纳2021年上映名单上的17部影片将在影院上映当天在其流媒体服务平台HBO Max上同步播出，而在以前，影院要先独家放映几个月。纯粹的电影工作者为此瞠目结舌。丹尼斯·维伦纽夫宣称：“不管华尔街的那些外行人怎么说，电影业的未来只寄托于大屏幕。”丹尼斯·维伦纽夫的科幻史诗巨作《沙丘》也受到了波及。

Warner is not the only studio shifting its focus to the small screen. In July Universal Pictures, part of Comcast, a cable company, did a deal with AMC, the world’s largest cinema chain, to give theatres just 17 days before its films are made available online (AMC will get a cut of streaming revenues). Paramount⁷ Pictures, owned by Viacomcbs, has sold several films to Netflix this year rather than release them to empty auditoriums⁸. And on December 10th Disney, Hollywood’s biggest studio, signalled that it, too, sees its future in streaming.

华纳并不是唯一一家将重心转移到小屏幕的电影制片厂。今年7月，有线电视公司康卡斯特旗下的环球影业与全球最大的连锁院线AMC达成了一项协议，在其电影院线播放17天后上线网络平台（AMC将因此分得一部分流媒体收益）。维亚康姆旗下的派拉蒙影业今年已向Netflix出售了几部电影，而没有选择在观众席空荡荡的电影院里上映。12月10日，好莱坞最大的电影制片厂迪士尼也表示，它未来也将转向流媒体领域。

1 pivoting   

n.绕轴旋转，绕公共法线旋转v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的现在分词 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开

参考例句：

• Here is a neat YouTube video showing the Gyro's pivoting mechanism. 这里是一个整洁的YouTube视频显示陀螺仪的旋转机制。 来自互联网
• Dart pivoting is widely used in the gannent pattern design. 省道转移的原理在服装纸样设计中应用十分广泛。 来自互联网

2 dearth   

n.缺乏，粮食不足，饥谨

参考例句：

• There is a dearth of good children's plays.目前缺少优秀的儿童剧。
• Many people in that country died because of dearth of food.那个国家有许多人因为缺少粮食而死。

3 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

4 dilettante   

n.半瓶醋，业余爱好者

参考例句：

• He is a master of that area even if he is a dilettante.虽然他只是个业余爱好者，但却是一流的高手。
• I'm too serious to be a dilettante and too much a dabbler to be a professional.作为一个业余艺术爱好者我过于严肃认真了，而为一个专业人员我又太业余了。

5 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

7 paramount   

a.最重要的，最高权力的

参考例句：

• My paramount object is to save the Union and destroy slavery.我的最高目标是拯救美国，摧毁奴隶制度。
• Nitrogen is of paramount importance to life on earth.氮对地球上的生命至关重要。

8 auditoriums   

n.观众席( auditorium的名词复数 )；听众席；礼堂；会堂

参考例句：

• The walls and ceilings of contemporary auditoriums usually conceal light, sound, and air-conditioning equipment. 当代观众厅的墙壁和天花板常设灯光、音响以及空调设备。 来自互联网
• The interior follows an exceedingly compact plan of different types and sizes of rooms and auditoriums. 在室内装饰方面，不同类型不同尺寸的空间以及观众席都追寻一种极端简洁的装饰风格。 来自互联网